GGR 22

[zoidberg]

Simon Curwen is, at 1000UTC today, about 10 miles west of Cape Town. Good landfall. He can certainly see Table Mountain and the Seven Sisters from there, and has slowed to about 1.2kts in light southerly breeze.

Live Tracker

 

[zoidberg]

Curwen is in through the Cape Town Gate - don't know the time yet - while Tapio and Kirsten are close to 'neck-and-neck' with just a dozen miles 'distance-to-go' separating them. Kirsten has better boatspeed at present, so that 'dozen miles' is likely to be eroded away overnight. They're still 2 days out from beautiful Kaapstad, with some forecast quiet patches.

I'd be very tempted to stop, to admire the scenery and smell the land and the fragrant cooking for a while.... and go visit the winelands of Stellenbosch and Paarl....

Edit: He's going to anchor....

 

[zoidberg]

Kirsten has her nose in front now by 10 miles, doing 7 kts to Tapio's 5.7.
Simon C. is 85 nm outbound this morning and below the latitude of Cape Agulhas, the most southerly point of Africa. Hobart next......

 

[Old Thady]

Curwen is in through the Cape Town Gate - don't know the time yet - while Tapio and Kirsten are close to 'neck-and-neck' with just a dozen miles 'distance-to-go' separating them. Kirsten has better boatspeed at present, so that 'dozen miles' is likely to be eroded away overnight.

Was he able to sort out his halyard problems?

 

[jlavery]

Good question. As usual, well nigh impossible to find out useful news on the race.

 

[zoidberg]

When I looked earlier, Kirsten and Tapio were about the same distance-to-run to the Cape Town gate, with KN upwind. There won't be much in it....

 

[capnsensible]

Pat Lawless having Aries windvane snags.

Day by Day

 

[zoidberg]

 

[zoidberg]

Kirsten is just 2nm ahead of Tapio at 1900UTC, with just over a couple of hours to run to the Cape Town Gate.

 

[capnsensible]

Time to expend a couple of litres of diesel?

 

[ridgy]

Has anyone seen, or even knows where to see, this film of the 2018 that took 4 years to make?

2018 GGR Official Film Premiere

The advert mentions streaming portals but helpfully forgets to say which ones.

 

[zoidberg]

Looks like Kirsten is having a good long lie-in - or is feeling very homesick!

She did indicate she'd find an opportunity to have a dive over'side to clear away some barnacles, while the light breeze lasts.

.

 

[savageseadog]

Looks like Kirsten is having a good long lie-in - or is feeling very homesick!

She did indicate she'd find an opportunity to have a dive over'side to clear away some barnacles, while the light breeze lasts.

.

Lots of great white sharks around there

 

[zoidberg]

There are a darn sight more on t'other side of the peninsula, where the seals breed.

Where she is is frigid-cold, for deep water from the Antarctic wells up there. She's just a few miles off Sandy Bay, where the water is so cold it hurts.

 

[capnsensible]

So Pat Lawless has got to pit stop. Big shame.

 

[Old Thady]

Bad news. It seems Pat Lawless has retired as opposed to just stopping for repairs. Perhaps he wasn't prepared to slog on if he were 'only' in the Chichester class. It'll be interesting to hear what he says.

 

[skua164]

In the somewhat chaotic filming of and interview on his arrival, he said that had he been at Hobart he would have carried on in the Chichester class but no appetite for continuing in that way so early in the race.

Feel really sorry for him.

You tube link here

 

[Old Thady]

I just watched the interview with Abhilash Tomy. It was sad to see him so unhappy. One hopes it's just a bad patch and his morale will improve.

It was ironic that Pat Lawless was there in the organiser's RIB. Pat would like to race on but can't because of gear failure whilst Abhilash has a perfectly functioning boat, isn't that far from the leaders, yet is far from content.

 

[zoidberg]

He did, of course, suffer considerably from flashbacks and panic attacks during the first few days heading across Biscay.
Considering his ordeal in 2018, which he was fortunate to survive, his 'trepidation' is understandable.

 

[jlavery]

Just watched Abhilash's interview. Wow, that's one pissed off bloke.

I feel sorry for Don - he was not expecting that!

As Don pointed out - all the arrangements were in the NOR (I assume). Not sure what the problem is with getting weather information - Don seemed to say that Abhilash hadn't taken a weather fax, but then Abhilash said he "couldn't receive any faxes".

I have some sympathy - if you're sailing, in comparison to our expectations these days - "blind" with no weather information, that's really hard. He clearly thinks some sailors (Simon?) are getting private weather information.

I think it would useful and not unreasonable for competitors to know others' positions. On the 1989 Whitbread, we had to give our positions on the daily radio schedules.

I also have some sympathy regarding the Cape Town stop - buggers up their routing, and it's only for the organisers to get media material.

Wow, again.